The Cuban government has been receiving praise worldwide for sending more medical volunteers to West Africa to combat the Ebola virus than any other nation. Since making the revolution that overthrew the Batista dictatorship in 1959, 325,000 Cuban health care workers have given aid to 158 nations, and Cuba has trained 38,000 doctors from 121 countries without charge. These include students from the South Pacific. Cuba’s Public Health Minister said the mission to combat Ebola, like other internationalist aid from Cuba, “is carried out under the principle that we don’t give what we have left over; we share what we have”.

Come, watch, and discuss Cuba and Chernobyl. The documentary tells the story of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine in 1986 and Cuba’s exemplary internationalist medical programme that treated more than 25,000 Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Russian victims at the Pediatric Hospital in Tarará, near Havana.

Cuba and Chernobyl (‘Chernóbil en nosotros’) was produced in Cuba and broadcast on national television in 2006. English subtitles have just been added to the Spanish audio, to make it accessible to a broader audience. 50mins.